Photos taken by Jane Wendy of the carpark and HDB flat at Sengkang.

SINGAPORE — By now, most would have heard about the complaint by a Seng Kang resident about the mouldy facade of her HDB flat on Facebook has set the local media buzzing with how bad the situation is for the public housing estate at the Group Representative Constituency (GRC) run by the opposition party.

The resident, Jane Wendy, posted a series of images that showed the state of the Housing and Development Board (HDB) estate she lived in, which was described as a “haunted house”.

She complained that the town council is responsible for maintaining this area and asked if it is possible to have such a “mouldy effect”.

Jane noted that she has sent her feedback to the Seng Kang Town Council (SKTC), and their response was to wait for a new paint coat which will take place in two years or later.

Pointing out that there is no mould in the interior of her home, she lamented that she could not do anything to the exterior of the flat while her son is asthmatic and has chronic hives.

She said she could not accept how the SKTC told her to wait for another two years for the issue she had highlighted and closed her ticket.

For those who are unaware, the TCs manage the general Repair & Re-decoration (R&R) works, including repainting, for the residential blocks in their respective towns, which is conducted every seven years as part of R&R works.

As the Buid-To-Order (BTO) blocks were built in 2017, the HDB flats would be scheduled to be repainted in 2023 or 2024, which would be why Jane was initially told of the two-year wait.

Something that the People’s Action Party (PAP) Members of Parliament would say to their constituents as well because they, too, are tied by the standard.

However, the Workers Party-run town council has told TODAY that the HDB estate is scheduled to undergo repair and redecoration works this coming financial year.

The TC noted that the call for tender for the repair and redecoration works at the neighbouring Anchorvale Cove cluster was closed on 31 Dec 2022, and a similar preparation for Anchorvale Parkview is ongoing.

“We are working to see if the process can be expedited,” it added.

A netizen, Martin Lim, noted that SKTC had raised the issue and still waiting for approval. He wrote, “Even my 8yrs old estate are turning mouldy.. Jamus also replied us that he had already submitted a Yr back and still waiting.. All these R&R upgrading had to wait for around 10yrs.. It shouldn’t be this way. Cos some estates are more humidity. Should be case to case basis.”

In a comment posted on MustShareNews’ Facebook post on Friday, Associate Professor Jamus Lim made further comments on the issue.

The WP MP for the Seng Kang GRC noted that he could not comment on Jane’s post as commenting seemed to be turned off for him and that she had previously contacted him via the SKTC’s hotline.

He agrees that the state of the block is poor and that it is this disappointing.

“It does not look appealing, and for a block that is only 5 years old, it does look older than it should.”

However, Assoc Prof Lim, while qualifying as being not a building expert, noted that one contributing factor could be the choice of paint.

“Many new builds do not utilize the most anti-mould paint available. During the first R&R exercise, these are often upgraded. That will be the plan for the cluster, as it has been for other clusters that SKTC has overseen R&R works for.”

He then pointed to another factor which could be the location of the building, as It is located beside a river, and receives a fair bit of direct sunlight.

“The condition described is mainly for the C and D blocks, but not A and B (which are less exposed). Since the cluster was built at the same time and is maintained by the same team, it suggests that the source of the problem lies beyond simply the quality of development by HDB, or maintenance by the town council,” wrote the WP MP.

“All that said, it’s fair to ask if there is anything that we can do to help address the issue. I’ve been in communication with the town council, and we are working out a plan to accelerate the R&R works for this cluster, so that it will occur sooner than the usual 7-year cycle. This will be subject to approval, and there are the usual necessary procedures—designing the project, calling for open tender, and the like—that mean that the issue might not be addressed instantaneously.”

“But rest assured that we’re working on it, and we will be keeping residents updated on the status in the meantime, and request their patience.”

It should be noted that Jane’s photos, other than showing the HDB flats being mouldy, also show that the estate’s Multi-Storey Carpark (MSCP) is mouldy on its exterior.

HDB is the entity managing the R&R works for all HDB MSCPs, and generally adopts a seven-year cycle for such works, similar to that of the TCs.

Also, new BTO developments come with a 6-year warranty period for the external paintwork.

This warranty is provided to the relevant TC when the blocks are handed over to the TC for maintenance. The warranty covers defects and imperfections such as paint peeling, discolouration and algae growth.

The Minister added that, beyond the warranty period, TCs are responsible for the maintenance of the paintwork on the walls and facades of HDB blocks.

So given that the HDB flats were built in 2017, the warranty will only expire in 2023.

Public statements made by resident

On the one hand, Jane says she just wants maintenance to be done but, on a few posts, confesses that she is pressuring for the paintwork to be done earlier.

In a couple of Jane’s comments on her post, she puts the blame on WP-run town council and takes the position that the PAP-run town council did a better job at the maintenance.

But at the same time, she also accepts that two other HDB blocks at her estate are clean and that the issue could have been caused by the quality of the paint used. She does note that the town council told for that it was normal for the first coat of the HDB flats to be like this.

While Jane claims the blocks had no issue when PAP was running the town council at Seng Kang.

But Google Maps shows us that even in April 2019, before the current WP team won the newly created GRC in the 2020 General Election, the facade of the HDB blocks started to show signs of deterioration with algae/mould and cracks.


Other residents at the estate also. share similar observations, however, point that the issue is most likely caused by rain, sun and the proximity to the park and sea.

Furthermore, Jane laments the maintenance as the cause of the mouldy facade, the symptoms would suggest that the root cause comes from the paint work.

However, if you look at the walls of the building, you will notice that only certain parts of the walls show mould/algae forming.

An earlier 2019 version of the same spot in Google Maps shows that the stain was painted over but still reappeared nevertheless.

A netizen, Seng Lau, commented on TOC’s Facebook post, “From the looks of it, the paint job seems like a very lightly coated layer that is inconsistently painted, which is why you can see a difference of concentration within one wall.”

Another resident who shares Jane’s problems noted that she stays at Edgefield Plains which is located inside Punggol Pasir Ris GRC.

Ethan, who is also staying at Edgefields Plains, noted that there has been no paint job in over seven years, and the inside of the HDB flat building is much worse. And noted that the issue has nothing to do with political parties.

Below are the screenshots of the conversation between Jane and other netizens who commented on the public posts of the images that have gone viral with close to a thousand shares.

 

 

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